Trunking Chester County Help

[clumthief]

Hi, new to scanning, looking for a bit of advice with a Pro-164 I was given as a gift. Before I get into my questions I'll mention that I did place an order for a data cable to program it with my PC, but there's some kind of back order issue with Radioshack, so my order was delayed. I expect it within a few weeks but in the meantime I'd like to start scanning the Chester County Trunk System if at all possible.

While browsing these forums what I've gathered is that this system will be difficult, if at all possible to scan as a trunk system due to it being LTR Multinet, but here goes an explanation on what I've already done.

I stumbled across this thread a few days ago. What's confusing me here, is the first grouping of frequencies is named as "All." Now, is this a blanket frequency set for all of the Chester County system, or no, because it differs a good bit from each individual township listing below. As it stands I programmed the "All" list into a bank on my scanner in the order presented, set the bank to LTR mode and set each individual channel to LTR. These 23 frequencies are the only ones stored in the bank in question. Along with that I put all the provided talkgroup IDs in. When I tab through the frequencies manually I get bits and pieces and halves of conversations, and when I put it into scan mode it might stop to pick something up once every half hour or so.

So, I know a lot of that was probably completely clueless and maybe even painful to read, but programming and getting this scanner to function properly has confused me beyond throwing down the conventional frequencies for my county. If this LTR Multinet system is untrackable with my scanner, would I be better served to just program the 800mhz Conventional frequencies for Chester into a bank and scan them than try to tackle this trunked system? Honestly, aside from the couple of County-wide Fire Dispatch frequencies, the Krapf bus drivers, and some oddball maintenance groups from various business, I don't get anything from the other conventional freqs. I had the glorious plans of listening to primarily police bands but it seems to be fizzling out the more I read into this.

Thanks to anyone who reads this, I appreciate any and all help that's available.

 

[DELCOLHFC]

Welcome to RadioReference!

Hello clumthief,
As you have discovered Chester County's system is a tough one to monitor. The only way to hear PD on the system is to program in all the freqs listed in the proper LCN, use the ones listed here as 'site 001' Scanner Frequencies: Chester County Trunking System, Westtown, Pennsylvania program them as conventional FM freqs. According to folks from Chesco thats the best way to hear the most from the system, I am just too far outside the border to get clear reception on the 800 freqs so I can't vouch for this method myself. Of course monitoring the way mentioned you will NOT be trunk tracking, or following a given TG or conversation, but you should hear more than you are currently.
Give it a try and check back in here to let us know how it does.
Good luck!

 

[clumthief]

Thanks a lot, DELCO. I appreciate the quick reply.

It's a bit funky programming and scanning the frequencies there. I actually pick up and hear a good amount of conversation, the problem is the scanner stopping on frequencies every 1-2 seconds and getting hit with a small blip of something being transmitted that sounds mostly like someone keying a radio for a second and letting it go. I haven't had any luck squelching that out, since they transmit at seemingly the same power as the real content.

Just chalking it up to this being a mostly unlistenable system. Thank you again for your help.

 

[ctrabs74]

That's a pretty accurate description. That's how I monitor Chester County, and it can be a tough one to monitor, especially when you have the priority scan on.

 

[BearcatBrian]

Might explain my problems. Still have a question, tho.

Wow, very enlightening; thanks everybody. I live in Malvern, Chesco, and am having the same problems trying to listen to the FD and PD.

I purchased a BCT8 two weeks ago, became a premium member of RR, and purchased ARC8. Programming went pretty smoothly with the serial cable I bought at Radio Shack and ARC8. That's when the frustration began. I programmed bank 1 with conventional freqs I thought sounded interesting, and loaded bank 2 with LTR data I imported from RR.

Scanning bank 1 was as expected. Scanning both (or just bank 2) was disappointing - no chatter on the trunked freqs.. I made sure I pressed "TRUNK" so that the BCT8 could do its thing with the conventional and trunked systems I asked it to scan. I actually have better luck with bank 2 scanning it with the TRUNK button off.

The RR Misc. System Info for Chesco reads as follows:

"Talkgroups listed were obtained using LTRUNK and LTRDUMP programs. They correspond ONLY with thoses shown by the LTRUNK program and CANNOT be decoded by any LTR-capable scanners presently available.
The best method for monitoring this system is to program the scanner IN ORDER with the frequencies listed under CONFIRMED REPEATER ORDER - enter them with NO DELAY."

My question is: should I erase the Chesco LTR trunked data in bank 2, reprogram bank 2 as a conventional bank, then re-load the same freqs back in?

Thank you very much,
Brian

 

[ctrabs74]

My question is: should I erase the Chesco LTR trunked data in bank 2, reprogram bank 2 as a conventional bank, then re-load the same freqs back in?

Yes. Delete the LTR data in bank 2 and reload as conventional in the order listed on the RR database. That's how I monitor Chester County, albeit it's a little tricky on the PD side.

The FD is easier to monitor if, for example, you put the ChesCo 800 freqs in bank 2 and the VHF repeaters (160.185 for paging, 159.600 for East/Central, and 159.735 for West), then program them as priority channels. That makes monitoring fire calls easier.

Maybe if ChesCo decided to go with a real P25 system, it would make life easier... Then again, we have three commissioners in this county who don't seem to be into the "public input" thing on any issue...

 

[BearcatBrian]

Thank you very much Creighton. I'll give it a try tonight.

Ever take your scanner on a Chesco road trip? Took mine to Harrisburg (PA Turnpike) last week and heard almost no calls on my BCT8's pre-programmed Pennsylvania "Highway" frequencies.

Last thing - real quick. Are there any scanner web sites you've found useful (besides RR) that were PA or Chester County specific?

Thank you,
Brian

 

[Tommahawk]

Anyone try out the Uniden Bearcat BCD996XT Scanner on the Chester County LTR system? Just wondering if it would work.....

 

[Zack08]

I dont have one, but I can tell you that it won't track it. It's multinet, and AFAIK, theres no scanner that will.